Regular Member Meeting 2011 11 08

Note: This page serves as the 2011-11-08 Member Meeting's agenda (before the meeting) and minutes (after the meeting).

Time and Location

November 8, 2011

Meeting called to order at 19:55 by: Redbeard

Members Present: Martin, Phil, Todd, Toast, Tim S., Adam, Brad, Dan Barlow, Daniel Watson, Maxwell, Jamie, Emily, Alex, Redbeard

Others Present: Mike, Nadir

Quorum met? yes

Approval of Previous Meeting's Minutes

Regular Member Meeting 2011 10 11

Director Reports

President's Report

End of the year, so that means we need to beg for money. Do it.

Vice President's Report

One big thing: Before Elliot left, we were in communications with Viz arts in Rockville (trying to make a makerspace for young ladies, 5th grade-ish). Viz arts have subsequently followed up and Brad will be teach classes there on the condition of co-branding and a cut of some grant money. He wants to show up to a Microcontroller Monday and record a Kickstarter video as a plea for money (Arduinos, gear, etc). Members interested in participating would be appreciated. Brad will be doing drop in Arduino sessions to teach about basic electronics and getting started. Will be 10 wk class to teach processing and hardware interaction. Current lab is 8 Mac Pros and some Macbook pros. They are set as far as a standardized lab, but are lacking in traditional "maker" gear (o-scopes, soldering irons, etc).

Treasurer's Report (Tim Slagle)

Here is the October 2011 financial summary: File:HacDC Financials Oct 2011.pdf

October was good to HacDC, we finished ahead more than $500 due to increased membership revenue, additional member donations, and a generous one-time donation from Stephen Beuttel (thanks!) We added three membership subscriptions in October: Maxwell Whitaker, Mike Chelen (who didn't yet get voted in as a member), and Nicholas Stoler. Jeremy Bruestle dropped because he moved out of the area, and we had one non-paying member.

I'd still like to add more members - 60 would be a good goal. Then our expenses would be met by member dues, people wouldn't need to keep contributing extra (unless they wanted to!), and any additional money that came in through class and event donations could go to funding some projects.

Our DC corporate status was restored once we recreated the paperwork and sent them proof of payment.

I called PayPal and got us activated with their non-profit program, so we are paying 2.2% instead of 2.9% (plus $0.30 per transaction). This will save us ~$20/mo in fees.

Our change of DC Registered Agent paperwork is filled out and can be submitted once signed by the appropriate directors.

Secretary's Report

DOA / N/A

Director-at-Large Reports

Toast

Not much to report… Went to Smithsonian and got awesome. Looking to swap out Mario cabinet in the space for a different cabinet which is being donated soon. Need help moving the cabinet.

Member Reports

Jamie - Slacking on migrating the mailing list, will try to finish by thxgvng. FredHack (Fredricksburg, VA) has some metalworking gear (described as "big") and will let us use it. Owner of metalworking gear owns a large tract of land. He has invited us to come play with things requiring open space. Has extra hackerspace passports and is looking to unload them.

Brad - Back in the day we used to do lightning talks. Brad will spearhead them. December or New Year as a timeline. (Phil: Can we find a previous speakers list that Daniel P. kept?)

Tim S. - Went with Alberto to Fab Lab open house. Space is on North Capitol near NY Ave Metro. Have space but no/very little gear. Space is owned by Phyllis' (Executive Director's) husband. Open house runs through Thursday as a part of DC week (10:30 am - 3:00pm). Were there for hours but no one else showed up. They have a Prusa Mendel (3d printer). It's not a part of the Fab Lab cannon. Additionally, they have some chinese 3d printers.

Dan B. - The 4axis mill that Martin recovered has been set up with a laptop and were able to mill out a torus. If anyone can produce black & white photos to turn into pipefields / g-code we're ready for manufacturing. Dan suspects there is an SVG to G-Code filter. (Martin: Smithsonian is donating software for the mill, we will need to acquire dongle.) Mention the type of things you want to make on the blabber list. Engraving text, making machine front panels, creating 3d objects, all take different skill sets/coding jams. This is controlled via EMC.

Martin - Access control stuff is in it's death throes. We're almost done and soon to be paid/credited.

Toast - Quick note on the smithsonian - they have a huge facility out in landover. They have 3 gymnasiums worth of gear with no one to use it. By volunteering at the "Office of Exhibit Central", we can possibly gain access to it. (Phil is interested)

Jamie (2) - 757 Labs has a working Laser cutter

New Business

Election for Director-At-Large position.

Candidates:

• Martin - Toast nominates, Dan seconds. (Martin wins unopposed)

Yearly Member meeting

• Yearly meeting is proposed as Wednesday Feb 15th (Tim S.), Maxwell Seconds. Monthly meeting will piggyback on this. Vote carries unanimously.

AND SPEAKING OF THE IRS.......

Tim S. was perusing the bylaws and supposedly we need two folks (not on the board) to audit our books. We should ensure that happens.

New Members

Mike C. - Works as a web developer and data analyst with a background in science and sharing of data. Looking to expand sharing of datasets in similar fashion as open source software. Brad Nominates, Dan B. second. Vote passes unanimously.

Nadir - Originally from SF area. Been here since 2005. Worked as SE for Raytheon working on guidance systems and has been working in the field of financial analysis. Has been here a few times and liked it and kept coming back. Dan nominates, Brad seconds. Vote passes unanimously.

Alan - Would like to re-instate membership. Redbeard & Toast vouch for him. Todd nominates, Maxwell seconds. Vote passes unanimously.

Adjournment

Adjourned at: 20:48